February 28 2007

OK, I have to admit, for some reason, I'm just a little bit scatter-brained during this trip. Maybe it's the anticipation of public beta, maybe it's the excitement of a really interesting travel itinerary, maybe I'm just geting old. But in the last few days:

I've managed to leave two things behind on airplanes. I've only done that once before in my whole life. OK, the scarf I left on the Swiss flight to Zurich wasn't a huge loss, but tonight I left behind a Swiss cheese sampler and a box of champagne truffle chocolates. Ouch!

I'm in a Hilton that I've stayed at before, but based on the first 90 minutes, I won't be back. Let's see why -- 1) my reservation was lost. It's still active and visible on hilton.com, but they can't find it in the computer here. 2) The minibar is broken, at least they "apologise" which is a word I seem to see everywhere when I'm in England. 3) There's no speakerphone and I'm on a couple hours worth of calls. 4) Room service included the world's smallest bottle of Schweppes Bitter Lemon, even putting aside American serving size standards. This bottle (shown) is 125 milliliters. Wow. And see #2 regarding minibar being broken.

I am still not sure what airline I flew from Zurich to Manchester. It was a Swiss flight, but operated by Helvetic Airways. It wasn't one of Helvetic's scheduled flights or a codeshare. The in-flight announcements all indicated it to be a Swiss flight, the food service packaging was marked with the Swiss logo, And the baggage service was insanely slow at Manchester Airport. Maybe I should contact my buddy Herr Franz.

It's been a while since I hired (rented) a car in the UK. I am not sure whether it's a matter of me not remembering, or a change in the way things go, but there was no map provided with the rental car. In the US, you always get a local area major routes map. None such thing here. The drive to Warrington in the morning should be pretty interesting. :-)

Oh, and I'm lost because the two anonymous websites that had their fifteen minutes of fame a few weeks ago have both been hacked, redirecting to various strange sites. It pretty much proves my point that I should ignore anonymous sites...some people just have too much time on their hands.